those are all good signs for the obama campaign. but, what that will mean at the end, we don't know but the obama campaign had a good signal from that. host: we have a chart from an article in the "atlantic." it talks about absentee ballot request in north carolina. in 2008 and again from 2012. they don't say what the date is. the absentee ballot request was -- in 2012 there was a request for democrats. for for republicans, over 96,000. it has changed. host: the democrats made a gain of about 9000. in your observations, do you see more democrats look again for absentee ballots in 2012 over 2008? might this make a difference for the obama campaign? guest: i think the key is in the early voting. at this point, the democrats seem to be having an edge in the early voting. you can look at the demographic numbers. there are some reasons why that might be the case. the obama campaign never actually shut down their operation from the 2008 campaign. they have a much larger staff and a much larger organization and did they have essentially be